New Delhi, Feb 12: The Supreme Court today sought fresh status reports from the Centre and states of Assam, West Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya about the steps taken by them to identify illegal Bangladeshi migrants and to stop their influx into the country. A bench of Justice S Rajendra Babu and Justice G P Mathur asked the Centre and these states to submit the status reports within four weeks.
The directions were issued during hearing of a six-year-old public interest litigation (PIL) by the All India Lawyers Forum for Civil Liberties (AILFCL), seeking deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants as also effective measures to prevent their entry into the country.
While the Centre in its affidavit had earlier admitted that nearly 1.5 crore Bangladeshis were illegally staying in the country, AILFCL counsel O P Saxena alleged that various independent surveys had projected their number at about two crore.
When the court asked West Bengal counsel K K Venugopal about the progress made on fencing of the border with Bangladesh, he said 137.72 km out of 507 km approved by the Centre had been completed.
He also stated that 1,565-km road along the Bangladesh border had also been constructed till December, 2002. Bureau Report